Personal life of Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov Mikhail - three beloved women in life
THREE WIVES OF MIKHAIL BULGAKOV.
The Three Graces of Mikhail Bulgakov: Tatyana, Lyubov, Elena...
All his wives were directly related to his works - someone gave valuable advice Regarding the storyline, some became the prototype for the main characters, some simply helped in organizational matters - he always felt the support of the one who was nearby. This was true exactly 88 years ago, when the Odessa magazine Shkval began publishing excerpts from his novel The White Guard. In the novel “The Master and Margarita” he put into Woland’s mouth the phrase that “he who loves must share the fate of the one he loves” and all his life he proved the correctness of this statement...
Tatiana: First love...
They met in the summer of 1908 - a friend of the future writer’s mother brought her niece Tasya Lappa from Saratov for the holidays. She was only a year younger than Mikhail, and the young man with great enthusiasm began to take care of the young lady - they walked a lot, went to museums, talked... They had a lot in common - despite her outward fragility, Tasya had a strong character and always had something to say , believed in luck.
Tasya felt at home in the Bulgakov family.
But the summer ended, Mikhail went to study in Kyiv. The next time he saw Tasya was only three years later - when he had the chance to go to Saratov, accompanying Tatyana’s grandmother. Now it’s her turn to act as a guide - show Bulgakov the city, walk through its streets, museums and talk-talk-talk...
The family accepted Mikhail... as a friend, but there was no question of marrying a poor student and a young schoolgirl. But a year later, Bulgakov returned again to the house of the manager of the State House, Nikolai Lappa... and found the right words that convinced the future father-in-law to send his daughter to study in Kyiv.
It should be noted that upon arrival in Kyiv, Tatyana had a serious conversation with the writer’s mother and about their relationship. But even here, the lovers managed to calm down Varvara Mikhailovna and explain that their union was not just a prank or a whim. And in March 1913, student Bulgakov submitted a petition addressed to the rector to the university office for permission to marry Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa. And on the 26th it was endorsed: “I authorize.”
During a trip to Saratov for the Christmas holidays, the newlyweds appeared before Tatyana’s parents as a well-established married couple. “Tasya” was a thing of the past, and now in front of them was “the student’s wife - Mrs. Tatyana Nikolaevna Bulgakova.”
They lived by impulse, by mood, never saved and were almost always without money. She became the prototype of Anna Kirillovna in the story "Morphine". She was always there, nursing, supporting, helping. They lived together for 11 years, until Fate brought Mikhail together with Love...
Love: Mature love...
They met in January 1924 at an evening organized by the editors of "Nakanune" in honor of the writer Alexei Tolstoy. Mikhail already felt what it was like to be a writer and was looking for his muse, capable of inspiring and directing his creative impulse in the right direction, capable of soberly assessing the manuscript and giving advice. Unfortunately, Tatyana did not have such a talent (or, indeed, any other talent related to literature). She was just a good man, but this was no longer enough for him.
Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, on the contrary, had long been moving in literary circles - her then husband published his own newspaper “Free Thoughts” in Paris, and when they moved to Berlin, they together started publishing the pro-Soviet newspaper “Nakanune”, where essays and feuilletons were periodically published Bulgakov.
By the time they met personally, Lyubov was already divorced from her second husband, but continued to actively participate in literary life Kyiv, where she and her husband moved after Berlin. When meeting with Bulgakov, she impressed him so much that the writer decided to divorce Tatyana.
The relationship between Mikhail and Lyubov resembled a creative union. Love helped him with storylines, was the first listener, reader. The couple got married only a year after they met - on April 30, 1925. The happiness lasted only four years. The writer dedicated the story “Heart of a Dog” and the play “The Cabal of the Saint” to her.
But on February 28, 1929, Fate prepared for him a meeting with his friend Lyubov - the one about whom the writer would later say: “I only loved the only woman, Elena Nuremberg..."
Elena: Love forever...
They met in the apartment of the artist Moiseenko. Elena herself, many years later, would say about that meeting: “When I met Bulgakov by chance in the same house, I realized that this was my destiny, despite everything, despite the incredibly difficult tragedy of the breakup... we met and were close. It was fast, unusually quick, at least on my part, love for life..."
They were both not free. Elena was married to her second husband, a deeply decent man, and raised two sons. Outwardly, the marriage was ideal. As a matter of fact, he really was like that - Evgeny Shilovsky, a hereditary nobleman, treated his wife with incredible trepidation and love. And she loved him... in her own way: "He amazing person, there are no such people... I feel good, calm, comfortable. But Zhenya is busy almost the whole day... I am left alone with my thoughts, inventions, fantasies, unspent strength... I feel so quiet, family life not quite for me... I want life, I don’t know where to run... my old self awakens in me with a love for life, for noise, for people, for meetings..."
The romance between Bulgakov and Shilovskaya arose suddenly and irrevocably. For both of them it was a difficult ordeal - on the one hand, crazy feelings, on the other - incredible pain for those whom they forced to suffer. They then dispersed and then returned. Elena did not touch his letters, did not answer calls, never went out alone - she wanted to save the marriage and not hurt her children.
But, apparently, you can’t escape fate. During her first independent walk, a year and a half after Bulgakov’s stormy explanation with her husband, she met Mikhail. And his first phrase was: “I can’t live without you!..” She couldn’t live without him either.
This time, Evgeny Shilovsky did not interfere with his wife’s desire to get a divorce. In his letter to his parents, he tried to justify his wife’s actions: “I would like you to correctly understand what happened. I do not blame Elena Sergeevna for anything and believe that she acted correctly and honestly. Our marriage, so happy in the past, has come to our natural end. We exhausted each other... Since Lucy had a serious and deep feeling for another person, she did the right thing by not sacrificing him... I am eternally grateful to her for the great happiness and joy of life that she gave me at the time ..."
The marriage of Mikhail and Lyubov Belozerskaya was dissolved on October 3, 1932.
On October 4, 1932, Elena Shilovskaya became the writer’s wife...
Fate had prepared a difficult life for them, Elena became his secretary, his support. He became the meaning of life for her, and she became his life. She became the prototype of Margarita and remained with him until his death. When the writer's health deteriorated - doctors diagnosed him with hypertensive nephrosclerosis - Elena devoted herself completely to her husband and fulfilled the promise she made back in the early 1930s. Then the writer asked her: “Give me your word that I will die in your arms...”
Bulgakova, Elena Sergeevna (née Nuremberg (Nuremberg), by her first husband - Neyolova, by her second husband - Shilovskaya) (1893-1970) - Bulgakov’s third wife from 1932 to 1940.
Elena Sergeevna was born on October 21 (November 2), 1893 in Riga (subsequently she always celebrated her birthday on October 21, despite the replacement of the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one). B.'s father, Sergei Markovich Nuremberg, was first a teacher and later a tax inspector, while simultaneously collaborating in Riga newspapers.
The Nurenberg family in Russia traces its origins to the German jeweler Nurenberg, who came to Zhitomir in 1768 among the German settlers invited by Catherine II. In the 19th century many representatives of this family moved to the Baltic states and became largely Russified. S. M. Nuremberg converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy. His wife, B.'s mother, Alexandra Alexandrovna Nyurenberg (née Gorskaya) was the daughter of an Orthodox priest.
In 1911, B. graduated from high school in Riga and in 1915 moved to Moscow with her parents (after 1917, her parents returned to Riga). As B. noted in her autobiography: “I learned to type and began to help my father in his home office, and began to print his works on tax issues.”
In December 1918, B. got married in Moscow to Yuri Mamontovich Neelov, son famous artist Mammoth Dalsky (1865-1918) and adjutant to the commander of the 16th Red Army, former career officer Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Shilovsky (1889-1952). At the end of 1920, the commander took his wife away from the adjutant and B.’s marriage took place with E. A. Shilovsky, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the Red Army (in imperial army he was the captain).
In 1921, their son Evgeniy (1921-1957) was born, and in 1926 - Sergei (1926-1975). In the 20s, Shilovsky was assistant to the head of the Academy of the General Staff, in 1928-1931. - Chief of Staff of the Moscow Military District, and since 1931 - Head of the department at the Academy of the General Staff.
In October 1923, B. wrote to her sister Olga Sergeevna Bokshanskaya (1891-1948), who worked as secretary of the Moscow Art Theater directorate: “You know how much I love my wives, what my baby means to me, but still I feel that such Quiet, family life is not quite for me. Or rather, sometimes such a mood comes over me that I don’t know what’s happening to me. Nothing interests me at home, I want life, I don’t know where to run, but I want to very much. At the same time, don’t think that this is a consequence of some troubles at home. No, we haven’t had them in our entire life. I just think that my old self is waking up in me with a love for life, for noise, to people, to meetings, etc., etc. More than anything in the world, I would like my personal life - baby, big Zhenya - everything to remain the same with me, and in addition I would have anything in life, just like your theater."
The same sentiments are in a letter to my sister, written a month later, in November 1923: “You know, I love big Zhenya terribly, he is an amazing person, there is no one like him, the baby is the most precious creature in the world - I feel good, calm, comfortable. But Zhenya is busy almost the whole day, the baby and the nanny are always outside, and I am left alone with my thoughts, inventions, fantasies, unspent strength. And I or (in bad mood) I sit on the sofa and think, think endlessly, or - when the sun is shining on the street and in my soul - I wander alone through the streets."
Meeting Bulgakov filled B.'s life with an atmosphere of play, fun, and joy. In 1967, she recalled this acquaintance, which took place on February 28, 1929 at the apartment of the artists Moiseenko (B. Gnezdnikovsky Lane, 10): “I was just the wife of Lieutenant General Shilovsky, a wonderful, noble man. She was, as they say, a happy family: husband of high position, two beautiful sons. In general, everything was fine. But when I met Bulgakov by chance in the same house, I realized that this was my destiny, despite everything, despite the incredibly difficult tragedy of the breakup. I did all this because without Bulgakov for me there was neither the meaning of life nor justification for it... It was in February of 1929, on the oil day. Some friends had a pancake party. Neither I wanted to go there, nor Bulgakov, who for some reason decided that he would not go to this house. But it turned out that these people managed to interest both him and me in the composition of the guests. Well, me, of course, is his last name. In general, we met and were close. It was fast, unusually fast, at least on my part, love for life.
Then came much more hard times when it was very difficult for me to leave home precisely because my husband was a very good person, because we had such a friendly family. The first time I was faint-hearted and stayed, and I did not see Bulgakov for twenty months, giving my word that I would not accept a single letter, I would not answer the phone even once, I would not go out into the street alone. But, obviously, it was still fate. Because when I went outside for the first time, I met him, and the first phrase he said was: “I can’t live without you.” And I answered: “Me too.” And we decided to connect, no matter what. But then he told me something that I don’t know why, but I accepted it with laughter. He told me: “Give me your word that I will die in your arms”... And I, laughing, said: “Of course, of course, you will die in my arms...”. He said, "I'm very serious, swear." And as a result, I vowed."
In September 1929, Bulgakov dedicated the story “A Secret Friend” to B. In 1931, E. A. Shilovsky learned about their connection. In connection with the stormy explanation that took place with him, Bulgakov made the following inscription on the Paris edition of the novel “The White Guard”: “Information. Serfdom was abolished in ... the year. Moscow, 5. II. 31,” and a year and a half later he added : "The misfortune happened on 25.2.31." The first date is the day of Bulgakov’s explanation with Shilovsky, the second date is the time of the last, as they then thought, meeting.
M. A. Chimishkian, at that time the wife of playwright Sergei Ermolinsky (1900-1984), recalls Shilovsky’s conversation with Bulgakov: “It happened here! Shilovsky ran (to Bolshaya Pirogovskaya, where Bulgakov and his second wife L. E. lived) Belozerskaya), threatened with a pistol..."
According to Chimishkian, “Lyuba (L. E. Belozerskaya) then, in my opinion, had nothing against their romance - she also had some plans of her own...” Shilovsky stated that in the event of a divorce he would not give up the children, and thus forced his wife to break with Bulgakov for a while. The resumption of the writer’s relationship with B. dates back to September 1932. On the last page of the Paris edition of The White Guard, Bulgakov recorded: “And they decided to get married at the beginning of September 1932. 6. IX. 1932.”
An excerpt from Bulgakov’s letter to Shilovsky, dated the same date, has been preserved: “Dear Evgeniy Alexandrovich, I saw Elena Sergeevna at her call, and we explained it to her. We love each other just as we loved before. And we want to get married.”
E. A. Shilovsky, in turn, wrote to B.’s parents in Riga on September 3, 1932: “ Dear Alexandra Alexandrovna and Sergei Markovich! When you receive this letter, Elena Sergeevna and I will no longer be husband and wife. I want you to correctly understand what happened. I do not blame Elena Sergeevna for anything and believe that she acted correctly and honestly. Our marriage, so happy in the past, has come to its natural end. We exhausted each other, each by giving the other what he was capable of, and in the future (even if this whole story had not played out) there would have been a monotonous life together more out of habit than out of a real mutual attraction to its continuation. Since Lucy had a serious and deep feeling for another person, she did the right thing by not sacrificing him.
We lived well for a number of years and were very happy. I am eternally grateful to Lyusa for the great happiness and joy of life that she gave me in her time. I retain the best and brightest feelings for her and for our common past. We part as friends."
On October 3, 1932, B.’s marriage with Shilovsky was dissolved, and already on October 4, a marriage was concluded with Bulgakov. His humorous note, handed over at a meeting at the Moscow Art Theater to director V. G. Sakhnovsky (1886-1945), has been preserved: “Secret. Urgent. At 3 3/4 days I’m getting married in the registry office. Release me in 10 minutes.” The Shilovsky children were divided. The eldest Zhenya stayed with his father, the younger Seryozha with his mother, and Bulgakov fell in love with him as if he were his own. E. A. Shilovsky helped his wife and son, but never met Bulgakov again.
On September 1, 1933, B. began keeping a diary, which is one of the most important sources of Bulgakov’s biography (after the confiscation of the OGPU diary “Under the Heel” by the OGPU in 1926, he no longer kept diary entries, and even lost interest in his own diary several months before his removal by the authorities).
In a letter to her parents on September 11, 1932, she stated: “...A year and a half of separation clearly proved to me that only with him my life will receive meaning and color. Mikhail Af., who read this letter, demands that I write without fail: ...especially since it turned out, with complete immutability, that he absolutely loves me madly.”
On March 14, 1933, Bulgakov gave B. a power of attorney to conclude agreements with publishing houses and theaters regarding his works, as well as to receive royalties. B. printed from dictation all the works of the writer of the 30s.
B. served as the main prototype for Margarita in the novel “The Master and Margarita.” There it says about the love of the main characters: “Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and struck us both at once!
That's how lightning strikes, that's how a Finnish knife strikes!
She, however, later claimed that this was not so, that we, of course, loved each other a long time ago, without knowing each other..."
It is possible that the first meeting of the Master and Margarita in the alley near Tverskaya reproduces the first meeting of Mich. Bulgakov with B. after almost twenty months of separation.
After the death of the writer, B. was for some time the mistress of the first secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers, Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev (Bulygi) (1901-1956), whom she met during her husband’s last illness. B. worked part-time by typing and translating from French.
She persistently worked on the publication of Bulgakov's works. In this regard, B. repeatedly appealed to the highest authorities, including personally to I.V. Stalin. In particular, on July 7, 1946, she wrote: “Dear Joseph Vissarionovich! In March 1930, Mikhail Bulgakov wrote to the USSR Government about his difficult situation as a writer. You responded to this letter with your telephone call and thus extended Bulgakov’s life by 10 years. Dying, Bulgakov bequeathed me to write to you, firmly believing that you will want to resolve and will resolve the issue of the right to exist on the bookshelf of Bulgakov’s collected works.”
However, B. managed to publish the first collection of two Bulgakov plays, “Days of the Turbins” and “Alexander Pushkin”, only after Stalin’s death in 1955. She preserved Bulgakov’s extensive archive, most of which she transferred to the State Library of the USSR. V.I. Lenin (now Russian State Library), and the smaller one - to the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House).
B. managed to achieve the publication of “The Theatrical Novel” and “The Master and Margarita”, the re-release in full of “The White Guard”, “Notes of a Young Doctor”, and the publication of most of the plays.
It is interesting that the personal lives of many famous people no less entertaining than their own creations. And people who find themselves drawn into their sphere of influence, according to various reasons enter History with them.
This is especially true for women wives who were able to attract the attention of famous and brilliant people. They, too, probably must have had extraordinary qualities. Which ones? First of all, talent. Yes, yes, exactly them. Because living with such people and living up to them is always difficult. Sometimes you need to suppress your own “I”, to be not just a wife, but a Friend, a Mother. To be able to console and cheer in a timely manner, to meet grief and even joy with dignity is also a great art.
Bulgakov's first wife is Tasya Lappa. The modest shadow of Mikhail Afanasyevich?
Have you noticed that fate, it would seem, is completely different people suddenly found themselves connected to each other in a strange and incomprehensible way? This constantly happened in the life of Bulgakov and his wives. For example, Tatyana Nikolaevna was married twice more. Her third husband was a friend of the writer! He was probably not a bad person. But he was always jealous of his wife for her first husband. Once he even tore up all the documents related to Mikhail Afanasyevich, all his photographs.
But how can we forget that Tatyana was the writer’s guardian angel for many years?
Bulgakov's teenage love of his wife and marriage that lasted 11 years
Bulgakov was 16 years old, she was almost 12 when they met. The young boy and girl experienced such a storm of feelings! Tasya (Tatyana) Lappa, from a large, but good and wealthy, intelligent family, came to visit her relatives. First he showed her Kyiv. They walked, laughed, chatted, non-stop, about everything. Then he rushed in it to visit Saratov.
An ordinary teenage romance—that’s how all their relatives viewed their relationship. But one day they were supposed to see each other for Christmas, Tasya’s parents did not let her go. He even wanted to shoot himself. They tried to “isolate” them from each other, and life circumstances led to this: Bulgakov entered the Kiev University, she graduated from the gymnasium with a medal. Then there had to be Paris. But the future Bulgakov's wife went to the historical and philological department of the Higher Women's Courses. And this is Kyiv!
All the relatives around are against them. In addition, Mikhail remained for the second year at the university. But it's all in vain. And finally, the wedding in the spring of 1913. A fit of crazy, causeless laughter is a burst of tension and a feeling of victory and happiness. We lived without grieving, always without money, but it was so loud! Youth, carelessness, unrestraint - all this is so understandable. But it quickly ended because the war began.
Tests, tests, tests...
Many researchers of Bulgakov’s work believe that Tatyana was not quite suitable for him - she did not have any special talents, and was somehow not up to the role of a muse. Dropped out of college. In order to be close to her beloved Mikhail, she became a nurse. Front-line hospitals, dressings and complex operations, during which she helped him, carts and weapons in her hands - this is the rhythm and style of their life of that time.
After the war, he worked as a zemstvo doctor near Smolensk. Hunger, poverty all around. For a catastrophically helpless situation - morphine. And she was supposed to have a child. And this is not the first time Tasya has had an abortion. And what kind of children are like that, when they could chase her with a weapon, go berserk during attacks?! They calmed him down and asked him not to take him to any clinic. Repented.
And again Bulgakov’s wife saved him. She gave me a diluted compound under the guise of a drug, and then only water. And in 1919 Vladikavkaz, because they retreated along with the whites. Mikhail fell ill with typhus. I sold everything to save it. So don’t believe in omens - I even gave it away wedding rings. Tiflis, Batum, Odessa, Kyiv, Moscow - she ran after him. At night he begins to write, she heats the water. So that he could put his hands in it and warm up.
Have you been through so much?! And it all started so fun.
Idle fiction or well-founded facts, but it so happened that he abandoned her as soon as he realized that he had succeeded as a writer. At first he visited Tasya. I helped as much as I could. And then he presented “The White Guard” with a dedication to Belozerskaya. And she didn't want to see him anymore. They say that before his death Bulgakov called her.
Bulgakov’s second wife: Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya - business connections or love
He left Lappa so heartlessly and insultingly for the sake of another. The one I met in January 1924 at an evening in honor of A. Tolstoy. And then, regretting it, he brought him to his home, to his family. Strange situation?!
The first wife managed to take care of the housework and sold things to get at least a little money. I was terribly tired and there was no rest - a continuous struggle for survival. Where's the lofty literature?! And Love has always been connected with the world that Bulgakov sought to get to.
Life before Bulgakov
Firstly, the young lady from the capital is a St. Petersburg resident. From a family of a diplomat. She graduated from high school with a silver medal. Then ballet school and singing, drawing. During the war - charitable hospitals. But Lyubov Evgenievna always had connections in literary circles. Her husband, journalist Ilya Vasilevsky, published his own newspaper in Paris. In Berlin, already with her - another. Bulgakov's works periodically appeared in their publications. Therefore, she was familiar with his work - feuilletons and essays - in absentia.
Belozerskaya’s family life did not work out at all. Her husband was terribly jealous of her. She called him Puma. There were, however, various rumors about her love interests. It seemed that, being married, Lyuba was eagerly looking for a new, more suitable match. This is what happened in Kyiv, where she participated in many literary events. It’s not easy to understand, but the passion between Mikhail Afanasyevich and Lyubov Evgenievna was insatiable. He was a little ashamed of this, he believed that his wife was a kind of cross for him. He wrote about her: “Like a splinter sits... that the damn woman tied me up; like a cannon in a swamp...”
"Oh honey, memories"
What a contrast with what she said about him: “I suffered for a long time before I realized who Mikhail Bulgakov was like after all. And suddenly it dawned on me - Chaliapin!” Despite everything, this sophisticated woman, accustomed to comfort, lives with the writer in the “Dovecote” (that’s what they called their unpretentious apartment). And that’s what it says to him here! Actually, at this time the fame of the Playwright came to him.
This is where their common favorite will appear - the cat Flyushka, brought by Mikhail Afanasyevich from Arbat, which became the prototype of Behemoth. So many serious things and sweet little things connected them during these years.
He loved her. This is also evidenced by the fact that, obviously, she was one of the prototypes of his “early” Margarita. He dedicated “The Heart of a Dog” and “The Cabal of the Saints” to her. She helped him (translated from French) when Mikhail Afanasyevich was working on the play “The Life of Monsieur de Molière.” Bulgakov's wife She knew how to give timely and correct advice, and was known (not by chance) as a gifted person herself.
Some of her stories and memories formed the basis of what Bulgakov described - Satan's Great Ball, for example. Therefore, after her divorce from Mikhail Afanasyevich, despite her noble origins, she was able to get a job as an editor of famous publications: ZhZL, Historical Novels, Literaturnaya Gazeta and Ogonyok.
But so little together! All her life she kept his notes and postcards addressed to Lyuban, the cat, i.e. to her, Lyuba Belozerskaya.
“...he who loves must share the fate of the one he loves”
This phrase belongs to his Woland. But, probably, the hero only conveyed the thoughts and expectations of his own creator. And then she appeared - Lyubov Bulgakova.
Bulgakov's third wife: they parted, met, explained
Elena is a fan of Nemirovich-Danchenko, who dreamed of a career as an artist at the Art Theater. First marriage at 25 years old. Staff officer Yuri Neelov, the son of the artist Mammoth Dalsky, could not restrain his wife. A short marriage - the commander literally took her away from his subordinate.
And she was happy. Two sons, a husband, a professional military man, Evgeniy Shilovsky idolized his wife. He managed to do brilliant career, became an officer of the General Staff. They are surrounded by military Soviet elite, for example Uborevich. Quiet and relaxing family environment.
And she is drawn to something completely different, to other people, to a different rhythm of life. The meeting with Bulgakov at first turned everything upside down in her soul. But what next? How can such a huge circle of close people be made unhappy? Shilovsky thought to keep her by blackmailing her with children. Elena is fighting with herself - she doesn’t answer the phone, she doesn’t walk along the streets where He might be. 20 months of confusion and anxiety.
And all in vain. And not in best time for the writer. He is almost never published, he addresses the government of the country with a letter of appeal: “... I ask me, a writer who cannot be useful in his own country, to generously release him...”.
How and where can you take your loved one with you in such a terrible time? But she appeared and everything seemed to immediately begin to improve. She even managed to remain on friendly terms with her husband.
His Margarita, beloved wife, biographer and secretary
1932 - she is Bulgakova. The eldest son is with his father, she goes from prosperity to uncertainty and poverty. Why? Because “only with him will my life receive meaning and color,” Bulgakov’s wife thought so at that time, and she was not mistaken. Despite his fears, when the letter reached Stalin, Mikhail Afanasyevich received a job, which means a permanent piece of bread. He became the director of the Moscow Art Theater. It was unthinkable to even dream about this!
Happiness has finally arrived. What is it like? Motley, not consisting only of happy events. Like everyone else, but also different. Labor, labor - negotiations with publishing houses, theaters, printing, editing. Bulgakov issued a deed of gift for her to receive royalties. And also diaries - six notebooks that will become bestsellers. Because they are a novel about the immortal Poet and his Muse.
Thanks to her, the novel “The Master and Margarita” was published. Moreover, there was not a single foreign insertion or amendment in it. Elena Sergeevna never allowed herself any corrections, not even blots, although she rewrote her diaries and crossed out things in them endlessly.
She knew that the whole world would talk about Bulgakov and his providence. She lived with him and his life, loved him madly. And he seemed to be in a hurry to write, to live. Knew he was sick. “Give me your word that I will die in your arms,” he asked his beloved. He prepared her for how she would gradually leave the world of the living. It was difficult for her Mishenka to leave the earth. And she was there and suffered with him, unable to ease his torment. Elena Sergeevna had no idea what trials lay ahead of her. She will lose friends and family. And among all the terrible losses - the death of his eldest son at the age of 35 from the same disease that Mikhail Afanasyevich had.
On October 4, 1932, 41-year-old Mikhail Bulgakov, already famous writer, legalized his relationship with 39-year-old Elena Shilovskaya. This was the writer's third and last marriage. Today we decided to remember the women who left their mark on the life of the author of “The Master and Margarita”
First youthful love - Tatyana Lappa (1892 – 1982)
The writer's first wife, Tatyana Lappa, came from a famous and wealthy family. Her father Nikolai Ivanovich was an active state councilor, managing the treasury chamber. He held this rank under the leadership of Pyotr Stolypin, who then headed the Saratov province.
Fragile 15-year-old Tanya was still studying at the gymnasium when she arrived in Kyiv from Saratov in 1908 to visit her aunt for the holidays. There she met 16-year-old Misha Bulgakov; as often happens, youthful love completely captured the young people. They secretly went on dates and walked around Kyiv all day long, sightseeing and kissing in secluded alleys. But with the end of the holidays, Tanya returned back to Saratov, but their feelings did not cool down.
The lovers met again only three years later, and all this time they communicated by correspondence. Despite the fact that the parents were not in such an early relationship, they understood perfectly well that things were heading towards a wedding. And so it happened, and soon Misha and Tanya got married.
The guests who came to the ceremony were surprised appearance brides None wedding dress, Tatyana had no veil or jewelry, just a linen skirt and blouse. But those close to the newlyweds understood that the money that Tanya’s father sent for the outfit was spent on a criminal abortion.
In 1916, Mikhail went to the front, worked in a hospital and operated on the wounded. His young wife Tatyana, who was a nurse and helped the novice doctor carry out amputations, also left with him. But the main tests were ahead. After Bulgakov was assigned as a zemstvo doctor to a remote village in the Smolensk province, he became addicted to morphine.
Tatyana had to go to the city for the next portion of the drug, and when she couldn’t get it, there was a scandal at home. When Bulgakov found out that his wife was pregnant again, he insisted on an abortion, saying, “I am a doctor myself and I know what kind of children morphine addicts have.” After another termination of pregnancy, Tatyana could no longer have children.
After some time, having reached the point of severe dependence, Bulgakov himself began to gradually give up morphine. At the same time, he began to study literature, and also openly cheat on his wife. He explained his behavior by the fact that, like any creative person, he needs inspiration, and he looks for it in women. Having moved to Moscow, he began to say: “In order to make the necessary literary acquaintances, it is more convenient for me to be considered single.” After ten years married life They've divorced.
After the divorce, Tatyana or Tasya, as he called her, was left not only alone, but also without a profession. According to her recollections, she worked as a typist, librarian and even worked part-time at a construction site. Bulgakov occasionally helped her with money. After living another year in Moscow, she met with ex-friend Mikhail Afanasyevich David Kiselgoff. In 1947 they left together for Tuapse, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Bulgakov remembered his youthful love all his life and, already close to death, whispered: “Find Tasya, I must apologize to her.”
A real muse - Lyubov Belozerskaya (1895 – 1987)
Mikhail Afanasievich met his second wife at one of the literary evenings in Moscow. Bright, educated, cheerful Lyubov Belozerskaya immediately drew attention to the writer. Long heart-to-heart conversations and stories about emigration brought them closer, and Bulgakov, without hesitation, proposed his hand and heart to Belozerskaya.
This was not the first marriage for Lyubov Evgenievna. Having ancient princely roots, an excellent education and knowledge of several languages, her first choice was a journalist named Vasilevsky. She emigrated to France with him during civil war, then they moved to Germany, where after some time their marriage broke up, and they returned to Moscow separately from each other.
The family life of Bulgakov and Belozerova resembled a bubbling fountain. The wife constantly threw noisy parties at home, invited guests, tirelessly chatted with her friends on the phone and distracted the writer from work. Tired of constant irritation, he once said: “Lyuba, this is impossible, because I work!” And she replied: “Nothing, you are not Dostoevsky!” This infuriated Bulgakov and caused the first crack in the relationship between the spouses.
Meanwhile, Mikhail Afanasyevich completed and published the novel “The White Guard”, dedicated the story “The Heart of a Dog” to Belozerova, as well as the play “The Cabal of the Holy One”.
A few years after the divorce, Lyubov Evgenievna begins to write her memoirs, “Oh, the Honey of Memories.” In the work she talks about her life, in particular with Mikhail Bulgakov.
Devoted to death Elena Shilovskaya (1893 - 1970)
Mikhail Bulgakov was introduced to his third wife by his second wife Lyubov. The ladies knew each other and often communicated, which is why Elena Shilovskaya was a frequent guest in the writer’s house. It even started between them secret romance, which Elena Sergeevna’s husband Evgeny Shilovsky found out about in February 1931. A major Soviet military leader was furious that his wife was cheating on him with a writer. He forbade them to communicate more than a year Bulgakov did not see his beloved. Then after chance meeting at the Metropol restaurant, they realized that their feelings were still alive. Elena Sergeevna wrote a letter to her husband asking him to give her a divorce, this time Evgeniy did not interfere with their feelings.
But Lyubov Belozerskaya calmly accepted the news that her husband was leaving for someone else. In 1932, Elena and Mikhail got married the very next day after the divorce. For some time, Belozerova even lived with them.
After a year life together Bulgakov shifts all publishing and current affairs to Elena Sergeevna. The wife devotes herself entirely to her husband, she writes under his dictation, edits manuscripts and keeps a writer’s diary, in which she records all his creative plans and developments.
A terrible illness struck Mikhail Bulgakov in the fall of 1939; he began to lose his sight and was afraid to be alone. On March 10, 1940, the writer passed away. From that moment on, Elena Sergeevna became the keeper of the priceless Bulgakov archive. Also, only thanks to her merits, many of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s works were published, the main of which, of course, is “The Master and Margarita”.
Elena Bulgakova passed away in 1970, when she was 76 years old. She is buried on Novodevichy Cemetery, next to the grave of the spouse.
“Find Tasya, I must apologize to her,” whispered a terminally ill man into the ear of his sister bending over him. The wife stood in the corner of the room, trying her best to hold back the tears that were coming.
Mikhail Bulgakov died hard. It was hard to believe that this exhausted man was once a slender, blue-eyed young man who later became a great writer. A lot happened in Bulgakov’s life - there were dizzying ups and times of lack of money, dazzling beauties loved him, he knew many outstanding people that time. But before his death, he remembered only his first love - the woman with whom he treated him badly. in the best possible way and the guilt before which he wanted to atone - about Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa.
Family test
...SUMMER in Kyiv. Walking along the embankment beautiful couples, carved chestnut leaves are swaying, the air is filled with some unknown, but very pleasant aromas, and after provincial Saratov it seems that you have found yourself at a fairy-tale ball. This is exactly how 16-year-old Tatyana Lappa remembered her visit to her Kyiv aunt in 1908. “I’ll introduce you to the boy, he’ll show you the city,” the aunt said to her young niece.
Tanya and Mikhail were ideal for each other - they were the same age, both from good families(Tatiana’s father was the manager of the Saratov Treasury Chamber, and Mikhail was from the family of a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy), so it is not surprising that tender feelings quickly flared up between the young people.
When the holidays ended and Tanya went back to Saratov, the lovers continued to correspond and maintain a relationship, much to the displeasure of their families. The parents could be understood - Bulgakov’s mother was alarmed that her son had abandoned his studies at the university, and Tatyana’s parents did not really like the telegram sent by Bulgakov’s friend. “Telegraph the arrival by deception. Misha is shooting himself,” read the telegram that arrived at Lapp’s house after Tatiana’s parents did not let Tatyana go to Kyiv for the holidays.
But, as usual, obstacles only fueled the feelings of the lovers, and already in 1911 Bulgakov went to Saratov to meet his future father-in-law and mother-in-law. In 1913, the parents finally came to terms with the wishes of their children (by that time Tatyana had already become pregnant and had an abortion) and gave their consent to the marriage.
They stood in front of the altar, beautiful and happy. And neither of them could penetrate the seriousness of the moment - both were constantly tempted to laugh. “How they suit each other in their careless nature!” — Bulgakov’s sister Vera once said about the young lovers, and I must say that at that moment it was the true truth. However, over time, not a trace remained of the former carelessness.
Trial by war
The writer's first love is Tatyana Lappa
In 1916, all students medical university, where Bulgakov studied, were distributed to zemstvo hospitals. Mikhail and Tatyana ended up in Smolensk. On the very first night they brought a woman in labor, her heated husband threatened the young, confused doctor with a pistol and shouted: “If she dies, I’ll kill her!” The birth took place together: Tasya read the required page from a gynecology textbook, and Bulgakov tried to follow the book’s instructions exactly. Fortunately, everything worked out.
After some time, Bulgakov was mobilized to the front, and as a military doctor he began working in hospitals. Tatyana, as the wife of a Decembrist, followed her husband and, like him, cared for the wounded, working as a nurse. “Hold the legs that he amputated. The first time I felt sick, then nothing,” Tasya wrote in her memoirs.
After returning from the front, Bulgakov worked as a zemstvo doctor in the small village of Sychevka near Smolensk, and Tatyana also went there. There were many patients, most of them were dying from hunger and lack of medicine, and the young doctor could do nothing to help his charges. It was then that Bulgakov became addicted to morphine.
Living with a drug addict is always a challenge, and if there is devastation and lack of money all around, it becomes a real disaster. To get morphine, one had to sell family jewelry and give up the most basic necessities. During his withdrawal periods, Bulgakov either became aggressive (he threatened his wife with a weapon, once threw a burning Primus stove at her), or began to cry and beg his wife not to take him to a shelter for drug addicts. Tatiana again had to have an abortion - Mikhail was afraid that because of his craving for drugs, the child would be born sick.
In February 1917, Bulgakov nevertheless went to Moscow to be treated for his addiction. However, it was not the doctors, but the faithful Tatyana who helped Bulgakov get rid of his drug addiction. In the spring of 1918, the couple returned to Kyiv, where, on the advice of her stepfather Bulgakov, Tatyana began diluting each dose of morphine with distilled water. And in the end she began to inject her husband only with water. The couple lived in Kyiv for a relatively calm year and a half.
In 1919, Bulgakov again enlisted in the army (this time Mikhail treated white soldiers and officers), and the couple went to Vladikavkaz. In the winter of 1920, Mikhail fell ill with a severe form of typhus, and Tasya again faced severe trials. Because of her sick husband, Tanya was unable to leave the city with the whites; she had to run through the looted streets in search of a doctor, and sell the remains of her jewelry to feed the convalescent. It was then that Tasya even decided to sell her and Mikhail’s wedding rings, and she subsequently considered this act the reason for the breakup of their family.
Test of Glory
For the sake of Love Belozerskaya Bulgakov destroyed his marriage with Tatyana Lappa
In the fall of 1921, the couple moved to Moscow. A severe struggle for survival began. Bulgakov wrote “The White Guard” at night, Tatyana sat nearby, regularly serving her husband basins with hot water to warm icy hands. The efforts were not in vain - after a few years, Bulgakov the writer became fashionable. But family life has cracked. Tatyana was not too interested in her husband’s literary research and, as a writer’s wife, seemed too inconspicuous. Although Bulgakov assured Tatyana that he would never leave her, he warned: “If you meet me on the street with a lady, I will pretend that I don’t know you.” At that time, Bulgakov actively flirted with fans.
But Bulgakov never kept his promise to never leave Tatyana. 11 years after the wedding, he offered her a divorce. The role of the homewrecker was played by Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, a 29-year-old lady with rich biography, who recently arrived from abroad. She had just separated from one husband and was planning to marry another, but it didn’t work out. So the affair with Bulgakov came in very handy. And Bulgakov liked her sophistication, love of literature, sharp tongue and secular gloss. At first, Mikhail offered Tatyana the three of them to live in their apartment (the third, of course, was supposed to be Belozerskaya), but, having met a stubborn refusal, he packed his things and left.
The writer’s last love is his third wife Elena Shilovskaya
Lyubov Belozerskaya became Bulgakov’s second wife, but he tried not to forget Tatyana - sometimes he helped her with food and visited her. One day he brought as a gift a magazine in which “The White Guard” was printed with a dedication to Lyuba. He explained this: “She asked me. I can’t refuse a stranger, but I can refuse my own.” The explanation seemed flattering, but Tasya was offended and threw the magazine on the floor. They never saw each other again.
Subsequently, Tatyana Lappa married a second time, lived to be 90 years old and died in Tuapse. Bulgakov divorced Belozerskaya, his third wife was Elena Shilovskaya (in Bulgakov’s marriage), with whom he lived until his death.
Photo from the book “Mikhail Bulgakov. Diary. Letters. 1914-1940"
